Jacob started using his Qi to graft the plants on each other, hoping he would get the desired product after a few tries. Thanks to his insights in the Alchemical field, Jacob could easily identify which properties had been passed down to the new breed; it wasn’t a magic trick, just experience. He had done this process so many times he could easily recognize which things had been transferred or not from one Spiritual Herb to another thanks to the variations in the energy of the plant.

He started combining the Black Speckled Root with the Earthy Knightly Fruit at first. The reason was that their Affinities were more compatible with each other and Jacob hoped to obtain a middle product that would mix better with the Honey Marrow Flower.

It was going to be quite the feat to get the desired combination without an endless amount of tries. But Jacob had decided to assign the highest priority to the food things.

Hektor could take care of the humans who were risking their lives in the meantime. Once the Vermillion Tyrant would start getting rid of the most immediate threats, they would leave the surviving towns alone for a while, with a simply check-up every once in a while to make sure nothing insane like what had transpired in Blacksoil could happen.

Knowing Hektor, it was going to be more than fine. The man was sharp enough to catch any wrongdoing. Later on, Jacob would use Epagogia to better screen the people they were going to rely on to fight the stronger monsters.

While Jacob obtained his first crossbreed, a slight headache started coming over him.

I need Epagogia to interrogate Hektor’s generals and all the warriors capable of killing people indiscriminately. The fucking idiot gave everyone a super strong Cultivation Technique.

Jacob was not even sure what to do about that. Was he supposed to just disregard the matter of people that could now grow as strong as they wanted without having necessarily worked for it?

Hektor had given everyone all the knowledge he thought would make them more likely to survive and become great fighters.

That was a massive problem—and all the reason why Jacob found plants so relaxing.

The first attempt failed spectacularly. The grafts simply didn’t pass any properties and Jacob shrugged. This was mostly a game of chances. He could nudge the process a bit, but it wasn’t something a cultivator with no Affinity for Nature could easily control.

He took another batch of Spiritual Herbs and started grafting again, while thinking about the problem with the Cultivation Techniques.

If I give everyone a Cultivation Technique, we risk escalating a massive problem. We need someone to keep people in check. If we don’t as soon as we start splitting our population we will face massive problems. Hektor cannot solve every single problem on his own, especially once the population grows too big.

The ‘growing too big’ part had sadly already begun.

We can’t seal their Cultivation and expect them not to rebel. The most sensible solution is to just use the people with such Cultivation Techniques to spearhead the conflict. Once they get in a position of power, we start digging out more about them through Epagogia.

Hektor’s empire had not been immune to corruption and mismanagement on a local level. The man did everything so swiftly that a lot of his work relied on trust.

Jacob, instead, didn’t trust anyone but a few selected people.

Hell, he could probably count on one hand the people he would entrust with his own life.

Hektor liked delegating a lot, believing in people. The Vermillion Tyrant was ruthless with corrupt politicians and warriors and his will had been divine law in his empire; all of that had allowed corruption and misdeeds to take place on a much smaller scale than one would expect.

But Jacob was having none of that.

He had already gotten an incorruptible police force led by Rose, the first woman they had rescued in Blacksoil.

But there were around twenty-five people there, not enough to check on all the people that were coming to St. Peter.

Jacob stopped worrying for a second and looked down at the second attempt. He could feel a faint void inside the new root, meaning it had taken after that property from the Black Speckled Root, but it also had now sort of a timeless feeling.

It’s going to grow too slowly.

He discarded that root and took yet another batch of Spiritual Herbs.

He shot a glance toward Epagogia and Hektor; the latter was sitting on the ground cross-legged, cultivating. The former, instead, was still pouring over the Formation, studying all its components meticulously. By her estimate, this work was going to take at least more than a week, around ten days.

If it’s even possible. Goddamn Ancient Formations.

After three more attempts, Jacob finally got the result he was hoping for. He had now a root capable of storing a lot of energy but without the same ‘slow-growing’ property of the original Black Speckled Root.

He could feel the wild energy inside the root, meaning that this thing would be useless for a Pill. Its energy would be impossible to balance in a standard concoction.

Well, now I need to make this thing germinate.

Jacob went over to a patch of soil he had prepared with some smaller Spirit Gathering Formation and one of his little-special Formations.

“Eppy, I need some of your Mana to power-up the Formation, can you spare a minute?”

The Devil Queen smiled at him sweetly and then put her face back on the Ancient Formation.

“I’ll help!” Hektor sprinted the few meters that had separated them and started jumping on the spot.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vermillion Tyrant, the most dignified emperor of my past life.

“Just don’t burn everything down. I need only Mana, not Fire tainted Mana. Do you understand?” Jacob looked at the man with a dubious stare.

“Ha! I can do that!”

I wish I had a fire-extinguisher, Jacob sighed.